| SPOUSE | CHILDREN | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
? |
?Samuel "little Sam" b. before 1781? ?Natchez Dist. d. ?Jul 18, 1824 ?Nashville TN |
||
|
Samuel was a slave belonging to either
Absalom Hooper or
Joshua Howard by the time they all had left
Natchez in 1779 after the Spanish took control and moved to the Cumberland Settlement
in Washington Co. NC where they claimed land on Whites Creek sometime after the
Compact was signed in May 1780, since neither Howard nor Hooper signed it. [See
Topographical Map
showing early land claims in the Whites Creek area [Drake, p. 23 and map E7]. |
|||
|
Map
of the Cumberland Settlement after 1780 showing Eaton's Station, the Bluffs fort,
Whites Creek, and the location of the Stump land and distillery [Illustration by
J.P. Brown, in Summerville, Southern Epic]. |
|||
|
The party of John Holloway, a total of
5 persons over age 16, Samuel among them and likely acting as the guide, and 9
children, arrived on two pirogues in the Grand Gulf area of the Natchez District
by Jan 21, 1781. They left the pirogues in the care of
Eleanor "Nelly"
Price who managed the river dock in that area. The town of Grand Gulf no
longer exists but was five miles west of the town of Port Gibson, about 40 miles
up the Mississippi River from Natchez. After being sued Sep 8, 1781 for nonpayment
for supplies, John countersued John Townshend
over the loss of the two pirogues [McBee, Natchez Court Records, Book A,
p. 8]. |
|||
|
Pirogues were flat bottomed boats, that could be manually propelled by either a
paddle like a canoe or a pole in marshes and swamps.
Photo of
a pirogue circa 1885 (lower boat) displayed at the Grand Gulf Military Park.
The pirogue was used on the Mississippi River according to the
display
sign. Each could hold 7 members of the Holloway party. |
|||
|
Receipt
dated Feb 28, 1781 from "John Townshend" to "John Holoway" submitted with the lawsuit
to the Natchez District Court [MDAH, microfilm roll no. 5326, p. 107]. The receipt
shows initial charges dated Jan 21, 1781. |
|||
|
On Sep 12, 1781, John Townshend
penned a letter describing what happened regarding the two pirogues earlier in
the year, including a conversation with
Elizabeth Holloway about the pirogues.
He may have submitted this letter when he attended the
John Alston estate sale on Saturday, Sep 15.
Letter translated to French
by Francis Farrell in 1781 for the Natchez Court
[from photocopy of MDAH microfilm, roll #5618, p. 108; see an attempt at an
English Tranlation
of intelligible parts of the same letter]. |
|||
|
Map of
the Natchez District as it may have looked between 1779 and 1799. |
|||
|
When John Holloway was shot and scalped
by Indians five leagues (about 17 miles) from the Fort of Natchez between Sep 8
and Oct 24, 1781, he was apparently working as "an overseer", and/or living, at
the plantation of Joshua Howard who was
"absent from this district". Fourteen year old son
George Holloway and the slave Samuel were
tied with a rope to a workbench, but George cut the rope and escaped during the
night. |
|||
|
The Commandant of the Natchez District received notice of the death of
John Holloway on Oct 24, 1781. On that
date a
Conveyance was issued to appoint the guardian of the surviving children,
and an Estate Inventory
was performed. The only male slave listed in the inventory was Samuel "of the
Angola nation aged about 50 years" and the other slaves were females who had been
owned by the Holloway family since they lived in SC. |
|||
|
1895 Map
of Natchez from the Ancestral Trackers
website, shows the likely routes of the Second and Sandy Creeks in 1781. |
|||
|
Map
showing Land Holdings in the Second Creek area in 1810 is an enlargement
of part of the Adams Co. 1810 Land Holdings Map found on the website of the
MS Dept. Achives and History. In the center of this map can be seen the land owned
by Joshua Howard and other members of the
Howard family. Brother John Howard (Jr.)
tried to claim 165 acres next to D. Ferguson and R. Sessions on May 29, 1804, the
same day that Joshua Howard tried to claim the 200 acres of land had been surveyed
for him in 1777. The latter tract would be the land that
John Holloway was "improving" and where he
was killed. |
|||
|
About 1786 19 year-old George Holloway
was sent to live with his uncle, William White,
and his grandfather, James Taylor White, in
Burke Co. NC, where part of the White family had settled and had become patriots
in a part of the country that was being "pacified", that is, freed from Indian
threats. Also leaving (probably together) the district to go to NC were the
John Townshend family and Samuel. |
|||
|
On Dec 31, 1788, "Joucha Hayward" arrived in Natchez from "Cumberland/Tennessee",
not listed among the flatboats and without family. In a letter dated Mar 2, 1790,
from Carlos de Grand-Pré, Natchez,
Mar 2, 1790 to Governor Don Estavan Miro, the
amount of tobacco was reported by growers of Natchez. A "Joshua Houvard" reported
producing 5000 pounds of tobacco [MS Dept of Archives & History, website]. |
|||
|
In the 1787 Wilkes Co.
NC Census, in Capt. Johnson's Company, dated Jul 7, 1787, a "John Townzen"
is listed on the 6th line of Pg. 3, as a head of household of 5 members: 1 male over aged 21 and under age 60 [John, aged about 35], 3 males under age 21, 1 female [wife], and no slaves. |
|||
|
In the 1792 Census
of the Natchez District, translated from the Spanish handwritten records,
there was only one household connected to the Holloway family: "Juan (John) Holladay" [son of John Holloway and about age 23]: 1 white person [himself, living on land originally owned by Joshua Howard, and no slaves [the slave Samuel may have left with John's older brother, George Holloway, about 1786]. The land was in the Second & Sandy Creek (SS) area which became part of Franklin Co. MS. |
|||
|
Absalom Hooper did not return to Natchez with
Joshua Howard in 1788. The 4th item of
Absalom's 1811 will lists an
"old Sam" among slaves bequeathed to his son Absalom (Jr.), along with "Smith tools",
presumably originally belonging to the John Smith
who earlier lived on his land on Whites Creek. If old Sam was Samuel, the 50
year old slave listed in the inventory of the deceased
John Holloway when he was killed by Indians
in Natchez in Oct 1781, he would have been about 80
when the will was written. The will also transferred to his namesake ownership
of a "Little Sam"
[Copy of original,
Tennessee State Library and Archives, Will Book 4, p. 246]. |
|||
|
Absalom Hooper Jr., who inherited Old Sam and little Sam by Aug 1813, had
married Catherine Whaling (1794-by 1812) on Sep 17, 1810 and had one daughter.
After she died he married Catherine "Kitty" Lucas (1794-1878?) on Feb 1, 1812
in Davidson Co. TN. |
|||
|
On Jul 25, 1813 a "Susanah Lester & negro Sam" were baptised by Rev. Robert
Heaton, son of Amos Heaton (1740?-1795),
along with Benjamin Drake and wife Susanah (neighbors of the Hooper family),
Thomas and William Heaton, and Hanah Criddle. On Sep 26, a "Sally Lester &
negro Zitter" were baptised one day after Benjamin Drake was chosen as a
deacon of Zion Church "on White's Creek". On May 26, 1819 "sisters" (members)
Susan, Nancey, and Susanah Lester seemed to have joined the Church. One of the
earliest baptisms recorded by Rev Heaton was Alexander Lester on Jun 14, 1812
["Nashville History: Record of Baptisms...", website blog post]. |
|||
|
Alexander Lester (1754?-1834), aged over 45, was counted in the Lunenberg Co.
VA census in 1810, counted in Davidson Co. TN in 1820, and in 1833 filed for
a pension in Williamson Co. TN at the age of 79, his widow giving his
date of death there as Mar 24, 1834 [wikitree research notes for
Abner Lester from a different family, website]. There was also an Alexander
Lester (1775?-1859) who married a Susannah Smith in 1806 there [familysearch.com
website]. |
|||
|
In Jul 1812, an enumeration of the 2200+ free male inhabitants of Davidson Co.
included an Alexander Lester in the same company (Capt. Rogers "Old Militia) as
Rev, Robert Heaton,
Frederick Stump and the
Benjamin Drakes (Sr. and Jr.) who all lived near Whites Creek [Whitley,
Pioneers of Davidson Co. Tennessee, p. 33]. |
|||
|
In the Jul 1812 enumeration of the 2200+ free male inhabitants of Davidson Co.
Absalom Hooper and sons Absalom Jr. and Nimrod were counted in Capt. Cloyd's Militia
Company, which also included a John Lucas, probably related to the two Hooper
daughter-in-laws [Whitley, Pioneers of Davidson Co. Tennessee, p. 22].
It seems probable that Absalom and his sons moved away from Whites Creek section
shortly before Absalom Sr. died, and that about the same time, they sold one or
both Sams with land to new arrivals such as the Alexander Lester family.
According to his pension application Lester moved to TN in 1811 ["Southern
Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements ..."]. |
|||
|
By Jun 1823, Benjamin Drake is identified as one of the deacons of
"Zion Church in Davidson County Whites Creek state of Tennessee"
["Nashville History: Record of Baptisms...", website blog post]. |
|||
|
Between 1812 and the year of his death, 1843, Rev. Robert Heaton, son of
Nashville founder Amos Heaton, baptised
many area residents (but no Hoopers), at many churches, including three in
Davidson Co. TN, Zion at White's Creek, Marrowbone Church, and Charity Church.
Also recorded with the baptisms, were 8 deaths of church members, including
"Black Sam died July the 18 1824" ["Nashville History: Record of Baptisms...",
website blog post]. |
|||
|
Sources: Adams Co. Mississippi Genealogy & History Network, "1792 Census for Natchez District (under Spanish Government control)", 2009, 1792 Census. "George W. Humphreys Bible", Claiborne MS Bibles, photostat of original bible, recorded 1957 by May Wilson McBee, in Mississippi Genealogy Trails, website. Cumberland Compact, original document signed May 13, 1780, Washington County NC, website. Clayton, Prof. W.W., History of Davidson County Tennessee, reprod. 1971 by Charles Elder, Nashville TN. MS Dept. Archives & Hist., Will Book Vol. 1, Adams Co. Courthouse, Natchez MS, microfilm, Apr 1816. Drake, Doug, Jack Masters and Bill Puryear, Founding of the Cumberland Settlements, The First Atlas, 1779-1804, Warioto Press, 2009, pp. 23, map E7. Imbert, J. Leopold, map maker, Carte des Possessions Angloises... 1777, reprinted by the Museum of the American Revolution from map image at the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library. Louisiana Anthology, website. "Inventories Conveyance... re: death of John Holloway" and "Court proceedings and inventory of estate of John Holloway", Oct 24, 1781, in Natchez Court Records Book A, Jul 21, 1781 - Nov 1787, p. 304, photocopy from research of Mary Lois Ragland, Oct 1990. McBee, May Wilson, comp., "Land Claims", in Natchez Court Records, 1767-1805, Book F, p. 21. McBee, May Wilson, comp., Natchez Court Records, 1767-1805, Greenwood MS, 1953, v. 2, pp. 64, 78, Book A, p. 8. MS Dept. of Archives & History (MDAH), Jackson MS, rootsweb, Americans Arriving in Spanish-Held Natchez 1780-1790. North Carolina Land Grants, Davidson Co. TN, #2991, website Potter, Dorothy Williams, Passports of Southeastern Pioneers 1770-1823, Gateway Press, Baltimore MD, 1982, p. 342. Nashville History, facebook blog, "Charity Church: Record of Baptisms of Rev. Robert Heaton, 1812-1843" posted Feb 14, 2009; transcribed by Debie Cox in 2003 from original at Library of Free Will Baptist Bible College, Nashville TN. "Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements & Rosters", # S538, revwarapps.org website. Summerville, James, Southern Epic, Gloucester Point VA, Hallmark, 1996. Tennessee State Library and Archives, Davidson Co. Tennessee Will Book 4, page 246, Microfilm Roll No. 427. Wells, Carol, Natchez Postscripts 1781-1798, Heritage Books, pp. 101, 144-5, 151, White, Gifford, James Taylor White of Virginia and some of his descendants into Texas, Austin, TX, 1982. Whitley, Edythe Rucker, comp., Pioneers of Davidson Co., Tennessee, Clearfield Publ., 2009. Will Books 3 and 4, Wilkes County, North Carolina, 1811-1848, The Genealogical Society of "Original" Wilkes County), Will Book 3, "Estate of Joshua Howard", Oct 1814, page 89, 120. |
|||